The present invention relates to a bolometer and to a method for measurement of electromagnetic radiation.
A bolometer is sensitive for infrared radiation. Typically, a bolometer is a sensor measuring a power of infrared electromagnetic radiation by heating of a sensitive material. For example, the sensing material changes its resistance with temperature. Resistors of various materials like vanadium oxide, amorphous silicon and metals are used as sensing material. Alternatively, the sensing material is implemented as a silicon diode. The noise of the sensing material such as a l/f noise has an important effect on a key performance parameter of a bolometer named noise equivalent temperature difference, abbreviated to NETD.
Document US 2005/0224714 A1 refers to an ultra low-cost uncooled infrared detector array in CMOS. A diode micro-bolometer comprises an n-well semiconductor in which a p+ active region is formed.
In document US 2011/0140224 A1, a diode bolometer is illustrated comprising a semiconductor membrane having a single crystalline portion. Two complementary doped regions of the single crystalline portion form a diode.
Document JP H08297052 A describes a bolometer-type infrared sensor. A resistor constitutes a light receiving part. The thin film light receiving part comprises an n-type semiconductor region and a p-type semiconductor region, wherein at one end, the n-type semiconductor region is short-circuited to the p-type semiconductor region by a thin metal film.